The Nature of Motorsports

Humans have always loved speed. Nowadays, with so many ways of going way too fast than is safe, people can enjoy sports that feature speed almost anywhere. Motorsports is the name of this type of sport, which uses motorized vehicles to race across tracks and terrain with tremendous speed. Motorsports includes such sports as auto racing, motorcycle racing, truck racing, air racing, hydroplane racing, motorboat racing, snowmobile racing, and lawn mower racing. As offshoots of all these different kinds of racing, there are a couple of types of motorsports that are not specifically involved with racing, but are instead focused on elements of the same general style of sport. Motorcycle trials, freestyle motocross and tractor pulling are all examples of these non-racing types of motorsport.

One of the most famous, most well known events in motorsports is the motocross, a type of motorcycle racing on cross country terrain. Motocross began in 1924, as an event called “scramble.” It was one of the earliest possible examples of a motorsport ever. Nowadays, motocross features motorcycles designed specifically for this motorsport, with special shocks and engines just for motocross. Courses are long, intense tracks of dirt, with mounds and hills dotting them liberally to create obstacles for racers. Motocross is a dangerous motorsport, and it is not without its injuries, but to watch it, to see as racers go hurtling through the air on the backs of mud-covered motorcycles, is exhilarating.

Another prominent motorsport is the most watched sport in America: NASCAR racing. NASCAR stands for National Association for Stock Car Auto racing, and it has been around since 1947. It’s another old, time-honored form of motorsport, featuring stock cars racing each other down an asphalt track. Founded out of a desire for a unified series of car racing competitions, NASCAR remains tremendously popular as a motorsport today, with hundreds of thousands of fans visiting race tracks to watch cars go hurtling down the black road, with the sun beating down, every year.

Why do motorsports appeal to us so much, then? As already mentioned, the speed, the thrill of the race has a lot to do with it. Watching those cars and bikes and anything hurtling along the curse at tremendous speeds, hearing the angry roar of engines echoing into the air, brings a rush to first time viewers and long time fans alike. For some of the types motorsport, the thrill is only enhanced by the complexity of the stunts, by the sheer audacity of the drivers and pilots in attempting those stunts. It’s the thrill of watching a dangerous performance, and seeing the performer come out the other end. Motorsports bring us the real thrill and excitement of sports competitions, with the enjoyment that comes from a sense of danger as well.

That sense of danger also likely accounts for a tremendous amount of our attraction to motorsports. It would be hard to believe that the hundreds of thousands of viewers, waiting in the stands, didn’t experience quite the satisfactory sense of schadenfreude when watching cars crash into each other. Much as these accidents are no laughing matter, as they are very dangerous, they are also part of the allure. The fact that at any given moment, such an accident could erupt…that the drivers and pilots are constantly in danger of crashing horribly…it brings to the motorsport an element of danger which is missing from a number of other sports. In any sport there is the potential for injury, but not in the same way as motorsports’ death-defying natures. In a motorsport, a driver has a significant chance of facing death during any given accident. For the people in the stands, watching someone else chance that in an attempt to gain glory and victory is thrillingly life-affirming.

Clearly, then, these motorsports call out to the deepest parts of humanity: the need for thrills, for dangerous action, for excitement. In a world that is so often sterilized for the sake of avoiding all possible danger, to have such a voluntarily dangerous sport. Beyond that, motorsports call out to us because of the nature of skill required to succeed at motorsports. It is not necessarily the same type of skill as is required in football or another more physical sport. Instead of needing physical speed and strength, or talent in throwing or catching the ball, a motorsports player needs control, endurance, and toughness. Motorsports are not sports of pushing your body to the limit on your own; they are sports of riding in a machine that will do all the pushing for you, forcing you to your limit and beyond, whether you wanted to go there or not. Motorsports are stories of control, in which it’s up to the driver to hold on tightly to the reins and not let go. That inch-away-from-losing-control element of motorsports is also likely one of the primary attractions to the genre of sport. Audiences find it thrilling to watch as drivers race down the track, knowing that it’s not a matter of the driver’s physical strength that will help him win, but a matter of controlling the car so perfectly that he avoids even the slightest mistake. Because in a motorsport, even the slightest mistake could lead to your death.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, motorsports are fascinating for viewers because of how much they are unified, equalized for all viewers and participants alike. A car is a piece of technology created by human hands; motorsports involving car races will both honor that piece of technology, and use it to ensure that the participant are starting off at a similar level. After all, when watching a motorsports event, one does not want to believe that it is the car, or the bike, or the plane that is determining the winner. A viewer wants the pilot or driver’s skill to be the primary determinant of success. Equalizing the technology given to each participant ensures that it will be the participant’s skill that determines his success, and this somehow feels more equal, innately, than many other sports. Much as football and the like are still determined only by the skill of the players, it feels a bit different, a bit less equal, in that each player’s skill is so innately tied in to them, and to who they are, that they don’t seem to start off on equal footing. In a motorsport, however, the presence of a motor vehicle helps to ensure that all participants get the same starting point.

Keeping in mind, then, these most attractive elements of motorsports, what can we imagine for the future? After all, if the danger is an important part of motorsports, then would they cease to be popular if enhance safety features were designed? Wouldn’t that rob them of the thrill that exists, as every driver is only an inch from death? The answer isn’t very simple, of course. No one ever wants a motorsport participant to be injured, let alone wanting him or her to die, but unconsciously at least, we find ourselves drawn to that particular element of the motorsports. If motorsports were to become safer, it is entirely likely that they would be praised, and the new safety features would be appreciated, but then the sport would change so as to become all the more dangerous. In essence, the danger of the sport would likely increase to match the level of safety provided. Never will there be a perfectly safe motorsport, as a result.

As an example, one could imagine that in the future, motorsports could be redone, such that they were all remote controlled. After all, a driver might be able to do as well via a cockpit some distance away from the car as he might be able to do if he is sitting directly within the car. The motorsport could easily still continue, but all the drivers would be entirely safe. But doing so would too far detach the participant from the thrill and danger of it all. It would likely lose a tremendous amount of its attraction to fans as an exciting sport as an additional result. Much as the motorsport would be fantastically safer, it would also be fantastically duller.

Americans in general are a people quite strong in their love of consequences, of risk and reward, of sacrifice. We do not believe that you can achieve anything great without risking utter failure. A movement of motorsports towards a zone of safety, in which nothing is truly risked anymore, would very much ruin the sport for this mentality.

One can imagine that as technology improves, so will motorsports. As new and different vehicles arise, allowing for more and more stunning and impressive feats of piloting or driving, new motorsports will crop up. As long as there are people willing to perform dangerous and astonishing stunts in assorted vehicles, without perfect assurance of safety from danger, then motorsports will continue. It is doubtful that motorsports will ever fully replace more traditional sporting events, but motorsports are here to stay, now.